Dimensions: 25.5 x 20 cm (in light of frame)
Signed p.d.: 'Gwozdecki'
Origin
Zbigniew Michael Legutko, Brooklyn, New York, purchase 1985
Exhibited
August Zamoyski. Thinking in Stone, Centre for Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu, Torun, June 21-September 1, 2024
Polish Paris. École de Paris. Collection of Wojciech Fibak, National Museum, Szczecin, December 1999 - March 2000.
Polish Paris. From Michałowski to Lebenstein. Polish Painting from the Collection of Wojciech Fibak, Museum of the History of the City of Lodz, 1999.
Polish Paris. From Michałowski to Lebenstein. Polish Painting from the Collection of Wojciech Fibak, State Art Gallery, Sopot, July 8 - October 4, 1998.
Polish Painting in the Collection of Ewa and Wojciech Fibak, National Museum in Warsaw, May 23-August 9, 1992; National Museum in Poznan, August 22-October 25, 1992
Literature
On the Track of Excellence. Selected works from the collection of Wojciech Fibak, exhibition catalog, State Art Gallery, Sopot 2022, p. 44 (il.)
Contemporary Art from the Collection of Wojciech Fibak, exhibition catalog, Leon Wyczółkowski District Museum, ed. by Michał F. Woźniak, Bydgoszcz 2018, p. 42 (il.)
Anna Lipa, The Puppet Whisperer. Life and works of Gustaw Gwozdecky, Warsaw 2003, p. 362 (il.).
Polish Paris. École de Paris. Collection of Wojciech Fibak, exhibition catalog, National Museum, Szczecin 1999, p. 80 (il.)
Polish Paris. From Michałowski to Lebenstein. Polish Painting from the Collection of Wojciech Fibak, exhibition catalog, Museum of History of the City of Lodz, Lodz 1999, p. 52 (ill.)
Polish Paris. From Michałowski to Lebenstein. Polish Painting from the Collection of Wojciech Fibak, exhibition catalog, State Art Gallery, Sopot 1998, p. 52 (ill.)
Polish Painting in the Collection of Ewa and Wojciech Fibak, exhibition catalog, National Museum in Warsaw, National Museum in Poznan, Warsaw 1992, p. 105 (il.).
Biography
Studied around 1889 with Stanislaw Grocholski - the painter's artistic studies were chaotic and often interrupted by financial troubles. For a period of time he studied and Konrad Krzyzanowski and probably around 1900 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. In 1903 he received a scholarship to go to Paris, where he began to study sculpture in the studio of H. Ponscarme and settled there permanently.He exhibited regularly in Parisian salons - in the period 1904 - 34.In Poland there were individual exhibitions of the painter in Poznan, Lviv and Lviv (1908). Since 1916 he alternated between Paris and New York, where in 1922 several works. Initially in the artist's work can be seen the influence of Symbolism, Expressionism, later French Fauvism. In the 1920s his work was dominated by portraits with disharmonious colors and soft contours, giving the representation a stylized look. He was also a graphic artist and the author of a series of articles on art published in Lviv magazines. Recalling the 1913 Paris exhibition, which exhibited Gwozdecky's works, Leon Chwistek wrote: 'As far as modern art is concerned, it has given me little great emotion. However, I must admit that the 1913 Autumn Salon in Paris, where there was a colossal performance of Cubism with huge canvases by Picabia, with Archipenko, Picasso and our Gwozdecky, in addition to some wonderful Matisse, shook me to the core.
